Editor’s Note: McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, McKnight’s Home Care and McKnight’s Senior Living are profiling the McKnight’s 2024 Pinnacle Awards honorees daily in April and May. For additional McKnight’s Pinnacle Awards content, visit this page.

Good business partners can be difficult to find, which is why Wendy Strain, the director of consulting services for Polaris Group, is a bright light in a crowded field. 

Strain served as a medic in the US Army. Then, after earning a nursing degree from Northeast Mississippi College, she used her education and hard-earned knowledge to work in diverse clinical roles. She worked for a decade as the director of nursing at Tishomingo Manor in Iuka, MS, which achieved a 5-star rating and boasted one of the highest reimbursement rates among the Polaris Group’s portfolio homes. 

She transitioned from working directly with patients and residents in a long-term care facility to consulting in 2015. Since, she and the team she leads at Polaris have helped hundreds of long-term care communities improve and enhance their clinical compliance and MDS assessment accuracy, as well as stabilize their staffing. In the early days of the pandemic, Strain spearheaded a remote MDS coordinator program. While acting as one of the group’s first coordinators, she realized that the program could be expanded to aid recruiting, reduce turnover and improve reimbursement accuracy. 

Among the roles she performs for clients, conducting mock surveys and providing risk management assessments are two of the most valuable, said Mike Brandley, chief operating officer for Conquest Healthcare Management. “Wendy’s meticulous approach and expert guidance has elevated our operations, leading to better patient care and staff morale,” Brandley noted. 

  • Advanced from nurse consultant to director of consulting services at Polaris Group.
  • Was interim director of nursing for 360 Healthcare Staffing prior to joining Polaris Group.
  • Wrote an article that appeared in the March 2022 issue of McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, promoting the benefits of the remote MDS coordinator program.

The McKnight’s Pinnacle Awards program is jointly administered by McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Home Care. Honorees were recognized March 21 at a dinner and awards ceremony in Chicago. Omnicare was the Silver sponsor for the 2024 Pinnacle Awards program. Parker Health Group and Sentrics were event sponsors.